X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

If you would have told me in January that Wolverine was going to be a dud, I would have disagreed but understood where you were coming from. I was highly looking forward to Wolverine. With Bret Ratner nowhere near the movie, Hugh Jackman returning, Ryan Reynolds in the role he was meant to be play, Deadpool, this movie had too many good things going for it. Alas it seems the old saying, don't judge a book by its cover, fits perfectly. It seems the common denominator here would be Fox. X2 was the peak of their success for comic movies. Other than the first two X-men movies Fox is responsible for Daredevil, Elektra, Fantastic Four (both of them). Does anybody see a trend here? Finally, after disorienting the X-men movies with X3, Fox has handed the finishing move to any hope of a quality X-men film with X-men Origins: Wolverine.

 

Smarts

25%

The best thing about Wolverine is the actors would be perfect if they were given decent material to work with. Even Hugh Jackman, who proved to me in X2 he was born to play Wolverine, misses the mark in this. Wolverine comes off like a timid puppy dog who walks away from every confrontation he is faced with. Danny Houston as Stryker is a major step down from Brian Cox. I don't think Danny is a bad actor, but this is certainly not his best work. Lynn Collins' Kayla Silverfox just doesn't compare to the chemistry Jackman had with Jansen in the X-trilogy. It's not that Lynn does a bad job, but it's hard to create the same romance Wolvie and Jean had when Silverfox is only in the movie for 10 minutes. This brings us to the most underused and ruined character of the movie, Wade Wilson. Ryan Reynolds plays the part to a tee, its just unfortunate he is only in the movie for 2 minutes. Gavin Hood (the director) David Benioff and Skip Woods (writers) apparently don't realize the biggest appeal about Deadpool is his witty satire, smart ass antics, and his psychotic tendencies. Instead, we get a Deadpool who might as well had his mouth sewn shut. The only positive comments I have are for Liev Schrieber. He really embodies the personality of Victor Creed and eclipses the entire cast in this movie as the only character, short of a hair cut, that stays true to his source. It's safe to say that Liev as Victor Creed is the best there is at what Wolverine is supposed to do in this movie.

 

Popcorn

30%

With the massive amounts of comic book and cartoon based movies hitting the big screens these days a lot of people spend time disecting the movies in comparison to its original source. Others argue that this is a new interpretation where changes and differences are allowed. I tend to take the fence position of this argument. I think it's important to make changes if it will better the story because frankly dealing with comic books and cartoons there is material that works well in that medium, but translated into film would come off pretty silly. On the other hand what is the point of adapting a popular comic or cartoon if you are going to ruin the essence that attracted people in the first place? Wolverine does just that. The changes made in Wolverine does not attract fanboys of the comic or make it more accessible for general audience members. Fox needs to realize that throwing in a dozen fan favorite characters means nothing if you completely change what was appealing about them in the first place or barely give them any screen time at all. The same ignorant pattern was the downside of X3 and the downfall of Wolverine.

 

Final

X-men Origins: Wolverine suffers from riding the coat tales of a generally well written and executed franchise and not being able to deliver adequate quality. Fox must have assumed that if they packaged a mindless script, that would ordinarily be used for the likes of the next Dragonball Evolution movie, in the shell of the successful X-men name then people would flock to this movie as they did before. Luckily for fans and general audience members alike the movie was leaked a month early which hopefully saved people from wasting time and money on this movie. X-men Origins: Wolverine is a half-assed comic adaptation that doesn't stay true to it's source in the comics or prior movies. Even if you forget about it's comic counterpart, or predecessor in the X-men franchise, Wolverine is such an inconsistent, contradictory poor excuse for a movie; it doesn't give the viewer any reason to care or enjoy it.